adoption update - one year

Today we have officially been waiting one year. One year since our home study has been done. One year since our dossier has been done. One year since our file has been sent to Ethiopia. Just waiting - for a whole year. And if the predictions are accurate - we still have a long way to go.

The wait has been hard. People warned me that it would be. I don't think I believed them. But it's hard because I feel helpless - there is absolutely nothing I can do to make this go faster. Nothing I can do to get to my daughter any quicker. It's hard because when I tuck my children in at night I wonder who is making sure she's warm enough. And when I care for my kids when they're sick I wonder who is making her feel better.

They say becoming a mother is like walking around with your heart outside your body. Becoming a waiting adoptive mother is like walking around with your heart on another continent. So yes, there are hard days in this wait.

I've had some doubts along the way. Did we pick the right agency? Is this the right country? Should we look into other options? Thankfully, my husband has no doubts. Only faith. And with his leadership, we are choosing to remain steadfast. Enduring the wait - and knowing that this labor of love is part of His perfect plan for our family.

God has been faithful in the wait. Through the tears and the fear and the longing He is molding me and shaping me into the mother I will need to be for her. For that I am grateful.

welcome to the wait list!

We received an e-mail from our adoption case manager this morning and the subject line read, "Welcome to the wait list!". Our dossier has been approved, our program fees have been paid, and we are officially on the waiting list. Our number is a bit discouraging - 137 - but that's just the way it goes with Ethiopian adoptions right now. Their country went through a major crack-down back in 2011 and slowed down their process. A lot.

So we wait. All the while trusting that God is in control and has a perfect plan. Even during this wait. Praying that He would use this time to prepare us and prepare our new daughter for what lies ahead. When she becomes one of our own. Through the miracle of adoption. Thankfully, the Author of adoption knows exactly what we are going through. And He is faithful.

big day!

The kids and I mailed off our dossier today!! (Yes, I really asked the UPS guy to take our picture. I'm that kind of dork.) This package contains four long months of paperwork that will be translated and sent off to Ethiopia. A very exciting day for all of us. And now we wait. But today - we're one step closer to our baby girl. And for that I will rejoice!

open doors

The adoption paperwork process is moving right along. Faster than we even hoped. God has been so good to us. He is opening doors and clearing the path ahead of us. We knew when we started that this adoption was what God wanted us to do. But he is showing me on a daily basis that we are on the right track. Now I know that if I were a more "mature" Christian I would have the faith to follow Him even if things were crashing down in front of us and the path was unclear. But God knows me, and He knows my heart, and He knows that every time He makes this proceed smoothly - He is encouraging me and loving me as only He can. So I just have to share with you some of the ways He has shown himself BIG in our adoption so far.

• His timing was perfect - we had just completed our school work in the spring on a Friday and that following Monday - two gigantic adoption binders arrived in the mail. They were filled with requirements, documents, instructions, etc. - and they were overwhelming! But He was so good to me to wait until I had closed one chapter (homeschooling) before I opened another.
• The financial piece of an international adoption is daunting. We have about half of what we need in savings and we are trusting Him to work out the rest. We owed our first large adoption payment back in June. That same week, our friends held a benefit garage sale for us and raised $980. They worked SO hard, donated so much great stuff - and gave it all to us. It was incredible. And then a few weeks later some good friends handed us an envelope with $1,000 in it. A gift we never could have imagined. Given because they love us and they love our Ethiopian daughter, and they felt that this was what God wanted them to do. We were blown away. Already - He is providing. Beyond what we could have imagined.
• Through a totally random, round-about blog connection - I met a new friend who is also adopting from Ethiopia. Her name is Jess and although we've never met, she has been such an encouragement to me. She reached out via e-mail and we regularly encourage and pray for one another. What a blessing!
• When Patrick and I had our FBI fingerprints taken, the woman at the police station who was doing them took one look at my hands and said, "Whoa - those are some cracked fingers. I highly doubt they will be able to read these prints." Cracked fingers? Who knew? Too many dishes and hand sanitizer perhaps? A normal timeline for reading these fingerprints is six weeks and a delay in FBI fingerprinting could have held up this whole process. I was nervous. But I told friends about what was going on and we had many people praying. My fingerprints came back from the FBI in THREE weeks and were read the first time. Amazing!
• The home study is a strange piece. You submit tons of paperwork and then have a social worker come to your home to interview you and discuss everything about your life from birth on. A little nerve wracking, to say the least. We were assigned a social worker from Olympia and we were going to have to pay for her to travel up here and Patrick would have to take time off work. So I was anxious about how all of that would work out and how much it would cost. We were assigned the most wonderful social worker! She agreed to do our entire home study (six hours of interviews) in ONE day. Meaning just one trip for us to pay for. And just one day that Patrick would need off. And she was wonderful. Put us at ease right away. Such a blessing!
• We were told that the social worker would need about 4-6 weeks to complete our report. She got it back to us in 48 hours. And she somehow turned our unflattering teen years and rambling answers into a well-written testimony of God's grace in our lives. Let me tell you - we should not be where we are today. But that's another post. Let me just say - God is good.

His hand print is all over this adoption. I don't believe in luck. I don't believe in chance. I believe in providence. And I can't wait to share with our daughter how God flung open doors to bring her home.

home visit

Our home visit for our home study is scheduled for this coming Monday. I've known about it for five days now and we've gone a little crazy getting our house ready. And by crazy I just mean we've been doing all those little things that have been on my to-do list for years now. Like paint the kitchen. And the stairwell. And the front porch. And have the carpets cleaned. And organize/throw-away-tons-of-stuff from every room in our home. All in addition to some good old deep-cleaning. (By the way - if anyone wants to come visit us - now would be a good time. My house is really clean!)

From my phone conversations with our social worker I think I'm going to like her a lot. We have to pay for her time and travel to come up from Olympia so she's agreed to do all 6 hours of our home visit in ONE day. So while it will be one very long day - it will save us time and money in the long run. And for that I am very grateful.

So I'm off to paint. And clean. And paint some more!

while we wait

Audrey has started making bracelets and anklets for the whole family in the colors of the Ethiopian flag. We will wear them while we wait for our little girl to come home. Courtney and Abe came over for a visit and they got in on it too. Nothing makes me feel more loved right now than to see our families come along side us in this adoption. Our sweet girl has lots of people anxious to welcome her!

adoption update

Things are moving along quite nicely. What started out as a mountain of paperwork to complete has been reduced to a small hill. I sent off our final packet of documents for the home study piece yesterday. We should begin our home visits soon. Little nervous to have someone delve that deeply into our lives - but we'll survive. And it's just one more hurdle to get to our girl. All five of us had, and passed, our medical exams this week so I can check that off our list too.

After the home study is complete, then we compile and submit our dossier (the large packet of documents that gets translated and sent to Ethiopia). I've started working on this group too so I'm hoping to have it ready to go about the same time our home study has been completed.

So that's it from here. Just lots of paperwork. I'm glad that I have things I can be doing to move this along. Once everything has been sent to Ethiopia we wait. And wait. And wait. I hear that's the toughest part.

we are expecting...

....our fourth child! Only this time, instead of being uncomfortably pregnant for nine months and gaining 60 pounds - we will fill out a mountain of paperwork, empty out our savings account and trust God to make up the rest, wait a VERY long time, and then travel to Ethiopia. Twice, actually. We are adopting! And we are thrilled!

Our journey on this road so far has been filled with God's blessings. And as time goes on I can't wait to share it all. What I know for certain is that this is something that God alone has placed in our hearts. It is so far out of my comfort zone - you wouldn't believe it. But He is good. And He is faithful. And just when I think I might explode with fear over it all - He reminds me who is in control. And thankfully, it's NOT me!

So thanks for joining us. We know there will be bumps along the way . But in the end, a sweet little girl will join the Oscarson clan. We don't know her name. We haven't seen her face. But she is loved. And she is wanted. And she is ours. And we can't wait to meet her!